Mrs. Clinton has had a rough couple of year from the planetary perspective, with transiting Saturn running rampant over her Leo and Scorpio planets and transiting Pluto tearing up the square in her chart from Uranus to the Moon. But she is one tough lady.

I for one was glad to see her appear human on the last day of the campaign, where she revealed a softer side than we had seen previously. Michael Lutin has a nasty article at Huffingtonpost.com ,which I will not bother to link to, which basically says that Hillary is tough because she’s a Scorpio and compares her to a cockroach. I am not a big fan of Mrs. Clinton, who is too liberal where I’m conservative and too conservative where I’m liberal, but I feel she deserves a neutral look at her birthchart and current planetary cycles.

To recap earlier articles, the most significant system in Mrs. Clinton’s chart is the stellium of planets in Scorpio which include the Sun, Chiron, Venus and Mercury, along with the South Node that suggests Mrs. Clinton’s Scorpio side is a vestige of the past and a trait which holds her back from her personal evolution. Breaking this down, Mrs. Clinton is particularly sensitive (Chiron/Sun) to the need to prove herself again and again, and the Scorpio energy of these planets gives her the tenacity to stay in the fight. Venus and Mercury in Scorpio demonstrate the intensity of her affection (Venus) and her views (Mercury), and her relationships are both her healers and create the post pain for her (Chiron/Venus).

This stellium is squared by a powerful triple conjunction in Leo of Mars, Pluto and Saturn. The exceptionally tight pairing of Mars and Pluto shows an intense (Pluto) desire (Mars) to express oneself and to achieve greatness (Leo). This shows Mrs. Clinton’s need for power and influence on a grand scale, which we see in most presidential candidates to one extent or another. The presence of Saturn there indicates frustration in realizing this goal. When Mrs. Clinton says this is personal, she means it in more ways than one. She also went through a difficult transit of Chiron and her first Saturn return (see this article for more details on these cycles).

This system was challenged for the past two years by transiting Saturn which passed over the Leo planets and made a square to the Scorpio planets, submitting Mrs. Clinton to one difficulty after another. Most recently transiting Pluto has opposed Uranus in her chart and quite probably her Moon (depending on her birthtime which is in dispute), suggesting a major upheaval (Pluto/Uranus) in her life and plans.

Transiting Chiron is in opposition to that Mars/Pluto conjunction which represents her urge for power, and we are seeing this in what came across in the most recent debate as her desperation to be president. This is the third phase of a cycle that began for her back in April of 2007, and then Chiron heads off to square Venus in her chart which is likely to create change in her relationships and allies while at the same time Jupiter makes a sextile to Venus, bringing in new allies to replace the old ones (March through October).

Mrs. Clinton is also going through a transit of Neptune opposite Saturn in her chart and square to Mercury which can be a difficult time when the structures we seek to create in our life (Saturn) are threatened by an erosion of our sense of reality (Neptune) and our sense of logic (Mercury) is dissolved into Neptune’s longing for idealism.

Most interesting is the effect on the February 6 eclipse on her chart. As soon as I find the time, I’m going to compare the charts of the major candidates to the eclipse chart, which ought to be interesting. The only candidate still not profiled is Huckabee, and we’ll see what happens next week. I may not need to include him!